Yahoo Announces Recount - It’s Not Good!

Note: Seems there was an error getting this post out this morning so I am resending it. Sorry to those of you that already had to endure my diatribe!

From Money.AOL

Yahoo! Acknowledges Tabulation Error by Broadridge

Yahoo! Inc. (Nasdaq:YHOO) was informed today by Corporate Election Services, the inspector of elections for the Yahoo! annual meeting of shareholders on August 1, 2008, that Corporate Election Services was notified this morning by Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc., an independent voting intermediary that processes proxies on behalf of banks, brokers and institutions, of errors made by Broadridge in reporting votes at the meeting. Specifically, as Broadridge publicly disclosed earlier today, when Broadridge reported voting results for “withholds”, a truncation error occurred in reporting share numbers that exceeded eight digits.

The following table reflects the corrected Broadridge numbers:
Director		Shares For		% For
Roy J. Bostock		632,023,657		60.4%
Ronald W. Burkle		649,373,291		62.1%
Eric Hippeau		948,862,579		90.7%
Vyomesh Joshi		971,594,650		92.9%
Arthur H. Kern		714,871,925		68.3%
Robert A. Kotick		967,044,818		92.4%
Mary Agnes Wilderotter		964,939,727		92.2%
Gary L. Wilson		756,006,576		72.3%
Jerry Yang		693,055,602		66.3%
The following table shows the original voting results certified by the inspector of elections, as previously reported:
Director		Shares For		% For
Roy J. Bostock		832,023,657		79.5%
Ronald W. Burkle		849,373,291		81.2%
Eric Hippeau		948,862,579		90.7%
Vyomesh Joshi		971,594,650		92.9%
Arthur H. Kern		814,871,925		77.9%
Robert A. Kotick		967,044,818		92.4%
Mary Agnes Wilderotter		964,939,727		92.2%
Gary L. Wilson		856,006,576		81.8%
Jerry Yang		893,055,602		85.4%

These errors did not affect the outcome of the election of directors. No errors were reported with respect to the other proposals presented at the annual meeting.

I mean, you just had to know something was wrong right? There is no way these guys got the votes they initially reported. Funny how this story breaks as the big institutional guys screamed from the rooftops about a recount. It’s a shame that this company is becoming a Greek tragedy. Jerry Yang’s numbers while still above 50%, got crushed.

There is no doubt an independent Yahoo is better for the market than one that is rolled up under Microsoft, but this team needs to get their acts together and start producing because their stock price is getting cheap enough that anyone could buy this thing and do what they wanted to with it. In the end, I suspect the Yahoo of today will not be the same Yahoo we see by Christmas, but I am not really going out on a limb on that one right?

Yahoo Poison Pill Worked

Microsoft-Yahoo saga Deal Off For Benefits Package

SAN FRANCISCO

A Delaware judge has unsealed court documents containing new details about Yahoo Inc.’s efforts to ward off Microsoft Corp.’s unsolicited bid to buy the Internet pioneer.The documents, made available Monday over Yahoo’s objections, shed new light on an employee severance program that would have driven up Microsoft’s expenses in a successful takeover. The records were obtained as part of a shareholder lawsuit filed against Yahoo’s board for resisting Microsoft’s overtures.

Based on Yahoo’s internal estimates, the severance plan would have added $462 million to $2.1 billion to Microsoft’s costs, based on the software maker’s initial offer of $44.4 billion, or $31 per share.Microsoft last month orally offered to raise its bid to $47.5 billion, or $33 a share, before withdrawing the bid in a disagreement over price.The shareholder lawsuit alleges Microsoft could have afforded to bid more if Yahoo hadn’t adopted such a generous program covering all 13,800 of the company’s employees in the event of a takeover.

Why is this not being called what it is? It’s a poison pill. Companies have been doing it for years but here is the problem Yahoo has. The shareholders are trying to unlock the value the company has embeded in it’s properties and to imagine this whole deal came down to this is going to mean one huge, fat, hairy shareholder lawsuit (not that there wasn’t going to be one anyway) so Jerry Yang better get used to court apperances cause this is going to be an interesting summer boys and girls.